There has come onto the market fluid containers for containing soft drinks, beer and the like which have tabs or rings which can either be grasped or pressed in such a manner as to bear against prestressed sections on the can so as to form an opening through which the fluid can be poured or sipped.
It is somewhat difficult for some people to open such cans. This is particularly apt to be true for those who have long nails and do not care to endanger them. In other instances the rings or tabs may break loose without sufficiently depressing the skin of the container to cause the necessary rupture and/or without opening the can sufficiently.
There are known in the art openers which are used for puncturing cans and for opening bottle tops. There has also been attempted can and pull tab type openers. One of the latter is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. D. 258,041 granted Jan. 27, 1981 to Anderson. With reference to the drawings of the latter patent, it will be noticed that there is disclosed an opener which is shaped very similarly to a single bladed knife. A blade section extends from one side or end to the other, and a handle is provided at one end. The blade extends between a pair of handle forming pieces, and is attached to the latter by one or more rivet-like members. The blade is formed of a single blade of material which has a series of openings. One of the openings apparently can be used for puncturing cans and it would seem that the other can be used to open the lids of flip top cans.
This patent is a design patent and its exact method of operation is not fully disclosed.
Another example of the type of double use tools in the prior art is shown in a catalog entitled the "Harriet Carter" catalog published by the Harriet Carter Company of North Wales, Pa. On page 20 of this catalog, in the upper left hand corner, there is shown a bottle opener which comprises a ring-like means at one end and a claw-like means at the other. Such an opener is used for the caps on bottles, but might conceivably be also used in puncturing a can.